Dave Sharples Awarded An MBE

CR spoke with him about Kidz Klub

Dave Sharples has been honoured on the Queen's birthday list in
recognition of his 19 years of service to children and young people in
Liverpool.

Working for Frontline Church in Liverpool, Dave started Kidz Klub in
1993, a modern day Sunday school that makes church accessible and
relevant to inner city kids. Since the launch of Kidz Klub, Dave has
made over 100,000 personal visits to kids at their homes, getting to
know local families in the process and becoming well known in
communities like Toxteth. Through running training weekends over the
years, the Kidz Klub team in Liverpool have developed a network of
clubs that has now spread to other towns and cities across the UK and
beyond. Sarah J caught up with him to find out more.

Sarah: We need to give you big congratulations because this
year you got onto the Queen's birthday list of recognition and got an
MBE.

Dave: I know it's all very exciting isn't it?

Sarah: It's fab! What were you recognised for with the
MBE?

Dave: It was for the work that I do with young people in Toxteth
Liverpool.

Sarah: How long have you been working with young people in
the Liverpool area?

Dave: About 19 years. I moved to Liverpool first in 1988, did a
degree, but wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, moved into Toxteth
in 1993 and that's what I've been doing ever since.

Sarah: What are the kinds of things you get up to with the
kids on the estate?

Dave: I ran a project called 'Kidz Klub'. I did that for 17 years.
Someone else runs that now, but it's basically an inner-city Sunday
School. Sometimes we used to get as many as 500 kids to the Sunday
School every week. It was mayhem, but there was a real order about it.
I mean the whole project was just based on communicating God's love to
kids and young people and helping them understand that they can decide
to live their lives however they want, or they can live their lives
for God. We gave them lots of opportunities to point them in the right
direction and give them the opportunity to make good choices. It's
been an amazing privilege to do the work that I've done over the years
and I still work with the young lads of the estate in a project called
'Mighty Men' and a lot of the lads that are now in Mighty Men, they're
in their late teens early twenties and I'm obviously involved with
mentoring them and supporting them. It's been brilliant!

Sarah: I guess, because you've been at it for 19 years,
you're having the pleasure of seeing kids that you worked with at a
really young age coming through into their adult years and seeing the
difference that their lives are having?

Dave: Yeah, it is fantastic. I know one lad that I'm working with
called Eve; he doesn't know his dad. He came from a very difficult
background and was always getting into fights at school and there were
some quite serious incidents. I just took him under my wing and said,
'Come on son, do you want to join Mighty Men?' and he has been coming
for four years. He was one of the naughtiest kids in his school; he
was always getting into fights, but then over about a five year
period, God changed his heart and he became this totally transformed
character, not just taking someone's belief for himself, but actually
starting to really care about other lads in the community and people
around him. The school was just so amazed and impressed by his
transformation, that when he left school in year 11, they said, 'Oh,
why don't you apply for this job for the school?' which he did and he
went to the interview and got the job and he now works for the school
where he used to be a bit of a scally wag! But that's just one story.
Eve even was awarded Young Person of the Year Award in Liverpool. To
me that's the reward; if you like, my real award is the difference
I've done with all the other volunteers that have helped me. That's
the reward.

Sarah: I imagine seeing those kinds of changes in people's
lives really makes it worth while when week in, week out you're
putting in hard labour into the lives of people?

Dave: Yeah, because it hasn't always been easy. I mean, over the
years I've made over 100,000 home visits in Toxteth visiting young
kids and young people and I still do home visits. I was out yesterday,
in the pouring rain. The best thing I do is actually just getting
along side kids and young people in the community, visiting different
homes and supporting the family. The real reward is when you see those
lads making good choices; forgiving people when they've been hurt and
not getting revenge on people when they could do. It's just helping
young people to make positive, good choices and to live their lives
for God.

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